Advertisements may lead to a cheaper Kindle Fire

The follow-up to Amazon's tablet could use the same ads as the E Ink versions.

The next version of Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet may use advertisements to lower its price to consumers, sources have told the Wall Street Journal. According to the sources, the advertisements would appear on-screen after the user wakes the tablet from sleep.

Amazon's E Ink Kindles have already been using a similar strategy for quite some time—both the Kindle and Kindle Touch are offered in standard and "with Special Offers" forms, the latter of which costs $30 less than the non-ad-supported Kindles. Users can choose to pay the extra $30 at any time to permanently dismiss the ads. Whether the amount of the ad subsidy (or the option to pay to dismiss the ads) would differ for the Kindle Fires is unclear.

The original Kindle Fire was fairly unique when it launched last year for the impulse-buy price of $199, but it has since been eclipsed by other tablets that offer more features and better specifications for the same amount of money, most notably Google and Asus' Nexus 7 tablet. The option to subsidize some of the tablet's cost with advertisements could help Amazon undercut Google without having to take a significant loss on each tablet sold.

Amazon is widely expected to refresh its entire Kindle lineup at its September 6 press event, and rumors suggest that the 7" Kindle Fire may be joined by a larger version with a 10" screen. Amazon announced earlier this week that the original Kindle Fire was "sold out" and it would not be producing any more units. Ars will be on the scene, liveblogging the announcements as they happen.

23 Reader Comments

The ads work fine on an E-Ink display because they just sit there when you're not using it, being subjected to an ad every time you turn on your device might suck, unless it's the actual loading screen and doesn't impede startup time at all.

I'd also question the ads on a non-locked system. CM10 and ads are gone. On the other hand, I doubt most of the people that bought Fires either knew or cared that they could flash their systems in the first place.

For a device that can be easily rooted & ROM'd this seems silly. The ads will easily be removed. What would the workaround be? A locked boot loader? That will result in lost sales...

I imagine Amazon is just going to take the hit and, hopefully for their sake, aren't going to be selling these at a loss. The original Fire already had the problem that the money is being made in it driving other Amazon sales and that disappears, but apparently there's nowhere near the proportion that it has changed how Amazon done business.

It has always been possible to root a normal kindle too (the e-ink ones) but it hasn't stopped the existing ads. I guess Amazon intends to make the ads not annoying enough to change how many users jailbreak devices.

It's hard to know what Amazon is thinking. With their refusing to give actual sales numbers, we have no idea as to how popular these things really are. I saw only three Kindles until early last year, when I began to see them more often. But now, it's back to not seeing them again. I don't know if that means people aren't buying them as much or not. I've never seen a Fire.

But Ads are never going to be popular. They've probably got to lower the price with the prospect of comparing with both the Nexus and the possible new 7.85" iPad. But how much can they sell these things for even then? $169? $159? $149? Will it continue to have the same UI? A lot of questions we will hopefully see answered this week.

And what about the supposed 10" model? What can't they sell that for? And will they lose money on that too?

But Ads are never going to be popular. They've probably got to lower the price with the prospect of comparing with both the Nexus and the possible new 7.85" iPad. But how much can they sell these things for even then? $169? $159? $149? Will it continue to have the same UI? A lot of questions we will hopefully see answered this week.

Well, the rumor is that they're releasing both a newer model and a slightly retooled version of the older model. If they could sell the old one for $199 last year, there's a fair chance they could get a similar model close to $149 this year, without ads.

So what if it was $159 without ads and $129 with ads? I bet they could move a boatload at $129. And they'd have a nicer, faster model for people who want something that is a little more competitive with the Nexus 7 and the iPad Mini.

The ads on our e-ink Kindles aren't a problem at all (and I've actually used a couple). Well done in my opinion (and I can pay $30 and get rid of them if I want). I'm not sure how ads would work on the Fire's, but I'll give Amazon a chance because of my experience with the Kindles.

Both of my kids want Fire's this Christmas. They really just want a small tablet to call there own, but they know of Fire's when they request a 7" tablet. So it's be a Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, or iPad mini. We already have a 1st gen iPad, but that's a "family" tablet.

I'm also interested in the Microsoft Surface (x86) for them, mainly because I think it could be used as both a tablet and a computer. We have several laptops, but they are starting to age. I don't think they'd want something that big though.

The original Kindle Fire was fairly unique when it launched last year...

Fairly unique? Why not very unique? Or sort of unique?

Something is either unique (meaning it's the only one) or it isn't - there is no "half pregnant".

People have been complaining using adverbs to modify "unique" since about 1900, but the battle was lost long ago: it's clear that the term now also means "rare." Although it can be used in its older sense as well.

It's hard to know what Amazon is thinking. With their refusing to give actual sales numbers, we have no idea as to how popular these things really are. I saw only three Kindles until early last year, when I began to see them more often. But now, it's back to not seeing them again. I don't know if that means people aren't buying them as much or not. I've never seen a Fire.

There is no reason for Amazon to give actual sales numbers. Unlike Apple, their ecosystem for apps and books spans multiple devices and competitor ecosystems. By releasing sales numbers for their devices they effectively are implying their market is smaller than it really is, unlike their competition which largely sells into their own device ecosystem.

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But Ads are never going to be popular. They've probably got to lower the price with the prospect of comparing with both the Nexus and the possible new 7.85" iPad. But how much can they sell these things for even then? $169? $159? $149? Will it continue to have the same UI? A lot of questions we will hopefully see answered this week.

The ads are popular. I seem to remember reading that the ad supported versions of the Kindle outsell the ad free versions by multiples. I'd have to look up the leaked sales numbers from late last year to confirm that though.

At the end of the day the issue is that they did advertising right. The ads on the Kindle are unobtrusive and actually really really good deals. By having limited ad space, they put those wishing to advertise in a position of having to bid for the best deal to offer Amazon customers in order to gain that ad space. Its permitted them to have high quality ads that actually are great deals for customers.

A lot of us intentionally bought the ad supported versions because Amazon runs a ton of $10 for $20 gift card deals that are only redeemable via this method. Using those, its possible to completely subsidize the purchase of your Kindle over the course of a year. Extremely consumer friendly method of advertising.

If a genie would grant me a single wish I would wish that all people involved in creating and shoveling ads (including spam) down our throats die in a fire and that there is never another ad or unsolicited communication for the lifetime of humanity. Informational and sensory overload is bad enough as it is.

I got a kindle keyboard about a year ago, and because it was all they had in stock I had to get the no-ads one. I was OK spending extra, but about a month ago I broke my kindle (they don't bounce when dropped). So now I'm kindle-less; Amazon's strength (can read on multiple devices) is also it's weakness here--I don't like the current options and I'm waiting. I might buy another kindle, but if I do then I'd want a cheaper, ad supported one (if I had held out for a subsidized one last time, I wouldn't be out $190 now).

Of course, the other thing I hate are the covers--they don't appear to be too cross compatible (even within a model year), and they're expensive. They recently had a 40% off offer on the non-keyboard kindles, and that would be super cheap for the cheapest one, but then there's the lighted cover ($60). no thanks.

My hope is that they have some sort of an upscale (ie backlit) e-ink kindle that is subsidized with ads. I may buy one if they do that. Or, I can wait--I don't anticipate reading in the sun until next spring/summer. And there is always nook!

My hope is that they have some sort of an upscale (ie backlit) e-ink kindle that is subsidized with ads. I may buy one if they do that. Or, I can wait--I don't anticipate reading in the sun until next spring/summer. And there is always nook!

You can no more back-light an eInk screen than you can back-light a piece of paper.

If a genie would grant me a single wish I would wish that all people involved in creating and shoveling ads (including spam) down our throats die in a fire and that there is never another ad or unsolicited communication for the lifetime of humanity. Informational and sensory overload is bad enough as it is.

Well if you hate ads so much why aren't you a subscriber here? Because that's the alternative to ads, paying for everything, or in some cases paying more for what you already pay for, since ads keeps the price down.

If a genie would grant me a single wish I would wish that all people involved in creating and shoveling ads (including spam) down our throats die in a fire and that there is never another ad or unsolicited communication for the lifetime of humanity. Informational and sensory overload is bad enough as it is.

Well if you hate ads so much why aren't you a subscriber here? Because that's the alternative to ads, paying for everything, or in some cases paying more for what you already pay for, since ads keeps the price down.

I haven't considered getting a subscription here yet and given that Ars has less and less original content and more of rehashing of other sources I fail to see why I should. Maybe you can offer some compelling reasons?

Most of the Internet content nowadays is aggregated from free sources and then ads are slapped on -- that is not exactly the business model I want to encourage with my money.

My ad hate is more directed at services where you have already paid for content and you still get the damn ads -- cable subscription, movie in a theater, and all other forms of unsolicited advertisement.

The obnoxious amount of ads is the reason I stopped watching TV, it now takes 3 hours to watch a 2 hour movie, and 1 hour to watch 30 min TV show -- we are getting at the point where ads are interspersed with content instead of vice versa and since big money is involved regulations are lax and often not adhered to.

Don't even get me started about opt-out instead of opt-in model which presumes that we all want ads shoveled down our throats unless we jump through hoops to get rid of them, unsubscribe, unlist our phone numbers, etc. Ads are like cancer.

Finally, I am not convinced that we are getting a better deal with ads.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.